I have grown up expecting that Japan would always be a leader in every technology. When my father used to come here in the 60's for his business, he would always tell tales about Akihabara--the crazy electronics area of Tokyo. And for so long there seemed to be the endless hey day of Sony, Panasonic et al.
But electronics did not segue to internet/computer technology leadership as much as I would have thought in Japan. I am surprised by the extent to which Japan is much more of a cell/mobile oriented culture than a computer/internet culture.
There is obviously a lot of internet here, but from my experience, it is not extremely fast and not as available as in the USA. I have seen relatively few internet cafes. Even Starbucks doesnt have it. Nobody in the 50,000 Starbucks here is using a laptop! And people are always texting, not emailing....except to foreigners.
There is Apple here, but not surprisingly, you see a lot more Sony
and Toshiba computers. ( I wonder if that is why they havent embraced
computer/internet technology as wholeheartedly as I would expect....I
personally think those computers dont work so great, and maybe if they
used more MACS they would gravitate in that direction!) Also, it seems that the Japan's electronics evolution is not as dazzling as I would have hoped.
What really brought this point home to me was a visit to the Sony flagship store in Ginza--the pictures are below. I was so excited to see the store....here it is in Ginza, the 'Rodeo-drive' section of Tokyo!...but inside it was a little quiet and sad...

Here is one of their star attractions! You can watch a 3-D movie while riding a stationery bike!

This sculpture in the Sony store says it all--a stone man reading a 2nd rate tablet